Women’s Asian Cup: Matildas coach Joe Montemurro happy with first win but acknowledges areas of improvement

Matildas coach Joe Montemurro admits there is plenty of room for improvement in the final third, but is confident his side will grow into their Women’s Asian Cup campaign after their opening victory. Australia’s 1-0 win over The Philippines at Optus Stadium on Sunday was neither the prettiest nor most effective of performances from the Matildas, but Sam Kerr’s first-half header ensured a winning start to the tournament. Even Montemurro, with his emphasis on possession-based football, would have been staggered by the stats as Australia had 85 per cent of the ball and ceded just one shot to their opponents, with goalkeeper Chloe Lincoln not forced into any saves. Mary Fowler’s 30-minute cameo off the bench showed her importance to the team as a conduit in attack, while midfielders Katrina Gorry and Clare Wheeler pushed forward and combined well with Australia’s wide players as the pair moved around the park. “I read an article and I don’t read many articles — apparently my football is messy,” Montemurro said. “I like that. I like that players are free, when you’ve got midfielders that are quite comfortable in high positions out wide, picking up passes in between. “It’s a mess, but it’s a controlled mess.” Possession means nothing if you cannot turn it into goal-scoring chances and outside Kerr’s 14th minute header, the Matildas had just six shots on target and most of them were tame efforts as their opponents sat deep and absorbed space. Montemurro said he was happy with how his team controlled the game, even if they did not have the goals to show for it. “It’s the big conundrum in football, isn’t it? We all talk about final third, we all talk about finishing and so on and a lot of its instinctive, a lot of it’s being a lot smarter in the moment, just having that that bit of coldness in front of the box,” Montemurro said. “Can we be better? Yeah, absolutely. But we’re getting there. We’re getting in and around the areas. The more we grow into the tournament, the more we control these moments, the more we’ll benefit for it. “Our first game together for a while, and we were probably a little bit more conservative, just wanted to make sure we got through this with a good, controlled base. “Once we get a little bit braver and become a bit more courageous as the tournament goes on, you’ll see a lot more opportunities open up.” Both the Matildas and Socceroos have a history of struggling to break down deep defensive blocks set before them by Asian opponents and Montemurro praised The Philippines’ defensive organisation. “We’d seen evidence of the team dropping off, very deep. There was no space behind it all, so we had to draw them out and they wouldn’t come out of spaces,” he said. “We probably needed to shift them a little bit quicker, in the first half especially. It was probably more about us identifying when we can play forward and be a little bit braver. We’ll grow into that.” Ahead of Thursday’s clash with Iran at Gold Coast Stadium, Montemurro said his team must be prepared to continue to chew up territory. “I like seeing the team really high, I like seeing the team really proactive. We were pretty much camped 30-40 meters from their goal and that was really important to make sure we’re comfortable in doing that, because we’re going to have to pin teams and and be smart around those areas. “We didn’t break areas when we were changing the point of attack and maybe we just need to look at our point of references in midfield, to go in, drag teams out and go. “There’s obviously some areas we need tactically to tighten up and clean up a little bit but all in all, we progressed well in the right areas. We just needed to be better in and around the box.”